Enhancing China's Capacity for Carbon Sequestration



	IES ANNUAL REPORT: Enhancing China’s Capacity for Carbon Sequestration: Year Three Update
	An early key event of the year 3 was the project symposium “Enhancing China’s Capacity for Carbon Sequestration: Progress and Prospects” that took place from June 20th to 24th, 2004 in China’s Changbai Mountain Natural Reserve. The workshop was attended by 47 searchers from Canada and China; representatives from various Chinese governmental agencies and from CIDA. AT this meeting all components of the project were reviewed, gaps identified and links among the components strengthened. The workshop also arranged logistics for fieldwork in 2004 and data transfers between project participants. During 2004, work at the component level progressed satisfactorily. The GIS/Remote sensing component was able to complete most (except for Dunhua County) of the outstanding work including national moderate remote sensing image processing; high resolution remote sensing image processing for most of the field sites and all GIS Core Sites, and, preparation of all datasets needed for national scale NBP modeling. Work at Dunhua County lags behind the other core sites because it was newly added to meet additional needs for IA in the Changbaishan area. Forest Assessment and Ground Truthing. The field study for LAI and NPP at Liping and Dunhua was completed during the year as were the forest resource use patterns and the tree species growing naturally. Data for the evaluation of potential forest practices for carbon sequestration maximization have been analyzed during 2005. Integrated assessment. Work in this component had progresses steadily. Stakeholders and local experts have been identified in each Core Site and meetings have occurred with Component 1 and 2 members, respectively to design possible carbon sequestration strategies and plans. The initial framework for a sustainability system has been finalized and data on women’s forest use has all been collected in the three core sites and Dunhua. Land Use Policy and Planning. Following the Changaishan symposium, an important JPS committee was held in Beijing. Arising from that meeting was the suggestion that relevant Chinese governmental agencies become better acquainted with the CIDA Carbon Sequestration work in China and actively involved in promulgating its models and findings throughout China to ensure a greater measure of sustainability. To this end, it was decided to seek advice from the project’s Chinese counterparts about which would be the most appropriate “Institutional Home” to achieve the latter objectives. In November the China State Forestry Administration agreed to be the project’s institutional home. A project milestone. The Toronto Carbon Policy Forum was held at the Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Toronto, May 2-6, 2005. This event provided a forum for 45 leading Chinese and Canadian experts and policy makers to discuss carbon sequestration methods and their implications for policies related to the Kyoto Protocol. The conference reviewed the carbon sequestration models produced by this Canada-China collaborative project, the project findings to date, their relevance to Chinese methods and its implications for Canadian policies. A preliminary outline of the project’s Decision Support Tool (DST) to be used by the Institutional Home to propagate the project’s methods and models throughout China has been designed and was presented and approved at this Toronto Policy Forum. This environmental policy forum is an important state in the Collaborative CIDA funded climate change project. The next critically important stage, is to involve senior government officials in China, to maximize the potential for actual incorporation of the results into public policy. This Policy Forum was the first stage, and it was designed to give senior officials from the project and from the Chinese state authorities the opportunity to discuss the project, and to meet people in Canada who have been active in our carbon programs, from both the science and policy spheres. It was also valuable for Canadian environmental professionals to meet with colleagues from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the State Forestry Administration, as well as Canadian colleagues from different organizations in the environmental field. (See conference program and all presentations on the project website under “News & Events”.) A significant contribution to the carbon sequestration literature will be made when, in December, a special issue of the Journal of Environmental Management will be devoted to research produced by the project. (See the Project Website under “Publications”.)

	Project Mid-term Report, October 2004
	“Confronting Global Warming: Enhancing China’s Capacity for Carbon Sequestration” is a special Canada-China Climate Change Development Fund project sponsored by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). The purpose of the project is to build China’s enhanced ability and capacity to increase ecosystem carbon stocks through the development of technical and human resources that will result in more informed and effective land-use, forest management, and more solid scientific base for environmental and land use policy making. Another important purpose of the project is to build China's capacity in terrestrial carbon cycle monitoring and modeling and to develop technology-based integrated assessment tools and participatory multi-stakeholder methods that inform decision making aimed at increasing carbon sequestration while contributing to sustainable development. This will result in a reduction in China’s contribution of greenhouse gasses that will significantly reduce global warming and protect the world’s population and ecosystems from potentially damaging climatic change. The expected principle results of the project are: (1) Chinese institutions will have increased capacity to estimate spatially explicit, long-term carbon dynamics for China's forests and forestry related activities; (2) Chinese institutions will have increased capacity to assess forestry management methods to enhance carbon sequestration, and (3) Chinese institutions, local and regional communities, as well as government agencies will have increased capacity to undertake integrated assessments of the economic, environmental and social impacts of land use decisions designed to enhance carbon sequestration. The expected principle short-term results are: (1) greater ability of Chinese partners to use GIS and remote sensing applications for carbon cycle modeling; (2) enhanced capability of Chinese partners to produce country-wide and local carbon sources and sink maps; (3) greater ability of scientists in Chinese partner institutions to undertake forest assessments and ground truthing to validate carbon sequestration estimates; (4) greater ability of scientists in Chinese institutions to plan for reforestation, afforestation, and other effective land uses that enhance carbon sequestration; (5) increased capacity among Chinese stakeholders (institutions and governments, especially policy makers) to use carbon source and sink maps (country-wide and local level) for guiding the implementation of future Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects; and (6) increased awareness in local and national governments of the link between local and regional sustainability planning, and carbon-sensitive land use decisions. In Canada, the project partners include the following: The Institute for Environmental Studies, the Faculty of Forestry and the Department of Geography of the University of Toronto Natural Resources Canada - the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing Environment Canada - the Adaptation and Impacts Research Group In China, the project partners include the following: The Chinese Academy of Sciences - Institute for Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research (Beijing) and the Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Group (Lanzhou) Beijing Normal University Nanjing University - Earth System Science Institute Nanjing Agricultural University Nanjing Institute for Soil Sciences Nanjing Forestry University Professor Jing M. Chen of the University of Toronto and Professor Liu Jiyuan of the Institute of Geographical Sciences & Natural Resources Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences are the chief scientists and serve as the project co-directors.[read the full report...]